Land search for star hotels

Calcutta, Dec. 15: A group with hotels in the US and New Zealand wants to set up a five-star facility here and a couple of other hotels elsewhere in Bengal.

Panoramic Universal Ltd has already got 2.5 acres in Durgapur. It wants around 5 acres in Rajarhat, and Darjeeling and Siliguri are on its radar too.

In the US, the company manages four limited-service hotels and a luxury resort in New York, Ohio and North Carolina under the brand name United Inn. It runs the Sai Motels in Auckland.

“In Bengal, we have already been given land by the Durgapur-Asansol Development Authority. We plan to construct a three-star hotel with 150 rooms a an investment of Rs 20 crore there,” said Sudhir Moravekar, the chairman of Panoramic Group, which also has interests in real estate and information technology.

Panoramic is scouting for land in north Bengal, but it is not averse to taking over old properties.

“As real estate costs, not only in Calcutta but metro cities across the country, spiral upwards, we are focusing more on tier II and III cities. If the return on investment stretches to five years for a three-star property and six to seven years for a five-star one, the venture becomes non-profitable,” Moravekar said.

The company, which plans a Rs 1,000-crore expansion from 2007-08, has hotels in Goa and Shirdi and a lounge bar in Pune. It is planning three five- star hotels in Pune, Goa and Kerala at an investment of Rs 750-800 crore.

It plans to raise funds through negotiated deals with private investors.